Entrepreneurship was on display everywhere, in both the array of high-powered attendees and the new-business displays crowding the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Guests networked and enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as NFTE students touted their fledgling businesses or ideas, including lawn care services, craft lemonade and a washcloth with sewn-in soap pocket.

After cocktails, guests trooped downstairs for a video presentation and entrepreneur interviews. David Hurst, NFTE graduate and founder of Lawn Care Extraordinaire, told the audience, “I was flunking every class, and I mean every class,” before he met his NFTE teacher, Scott Steward.

Both teacher and organization helped him find his entrepreneurial groove. “And now I, David Hurst, can say I sat in a meeting with Sam Zell and with Penny Pritzker,” he announced proudly to a burst of applause.

Mr. Hurst introduced benefit co-chair Kenneth Griffin, founder, president and CEO of Citadel LLC. “It’s great to be in a room where the American dream is alive and well,” Mr. Griffin said.

Panel moderator Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments LLC, led a spirited Q&A that included an exploration of the entrepreneurial psyche: quirky “mutants” who knew early in life they were different. Mr. Mason told of getting a crew cut and wearing a gold chain in fourth grade, to the derision of classmates. Mr. Zell characterized entrepreneurs as having “self-confidence, not necessarily justified.”

A few comments drew laughter. Ms. Hobson asked Mr. Zell about the worst advice he ever got. “Buy the Tribune,” he responded in his gravelly voice. Mr. Mason drew laughs when he told Ms. Hobson, “This job way beats spending time with people,” pause, “except for my fiancée.”

Mr. Zell trumped that with a summary statement of entrepreneurs: “If you dress funny and you’re good, you’re eccentric. If you dress funny and you’re bad, you’re a schmuck.

May 15, 2014

A lotta night music: That's what Mozart might have called Merit School of Music's 35th anniversary celebration, held May 8 at the Palmer House Hilton. From cocktails through dinner, live music performed by students from the West Side school filled the air.